


Monere- To Warn

by theninjadalek



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Inspired By Tumblr, the bat family is just generally unsettling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-28
Updated: 2017-09-28
Packaged: 2019-01-06 14:13:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12212907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theninjadalek/pseuds/theninjadalek
Summary: The Batfamily is more than a little unsettling and each one of them has their own special brand of uncanniness. They seem inhuman and eldritch even though the people of Gotham know that they couldn’t be anything other than human, right?





	Monere- To Warn

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by this post   
> http://iprayforangels.tumblr.com/post/161647616893/next-time-we-get-a-reboot-i-want-a-batman-who

The Batman becomes an urban legend of epic proportions, famed for his sheer determination. He is terrifying because he is unrelenting and silent. The criminals of Gotham city whisper in shadows and tread as carefully as they can, because once he decides that they are his prey, the actual capture is only a matter of time. He is frightening because he is inevitable, unavoidable, unshakable and above all else, incorruptible. The Dark Knight is speculated to be a holdover from an ancient curse, the more occultly inclined start to call him He Who Walks Behind, whispering his name as a curse to the wicked and a benediction to them, what a blessing it is to know your fate.

  
Nightwing bends too far, flips too easily. He is impossible to pin down and his electric smiles glint bright over city streets. He laughs easily and the sound is too bright against the dark background. The way he moves is not quite human, his back bends like every possession in a horror movie, his joints pop and shift in unnatural ways and rhythms, he flies when he should only be able to leap and bends where he should break. The people think that he might be some sort of trickster god and the rumors have yet to be convincingly disproved. A brave soul asked Nightwing himself and received only echoing laughter in answer as his quarry flitted away, flipping end over end in impossible displays of gymnastics.

  
She watches and waits, all-seeing and all-knowing, using the eyes the city has given her to pull strings from the shadows. Oracle is little more than hearsay, a story, a mysterious leader who directs the Birds of Prey. The very possibility of her existence rankles paranoid conspiracy theorists and disturbs any criminal who uses surveillance systems. When the rumors about her ran high, they threw the criminal world back into an older time. Cell phones and computers were discarded and security cameras on all but the cleanest of businesses were disabled. Soon though, the rumors are dismissed as nothing more than paranoia and delusion. The criminals of Gotham still can’t shake the feeling of being watched by unknowable eyes, trapped in the gaze of the Oracle.

The Red Hood is a shock to Gotham’s system, bloody,visceral, and horrifically real. There is no doubt of his existence, not when any resident of Crime Alley can say that they knew at least one of his targets with absolute certainty of the past tense of “knew.” His takeover of the criminal underworld had been quick and merciless, leaving few lives untouched. His reality did nothing to stop the theories of what kind of vengeful monster the man under the hood might be and, in fact, gave credence to many of the hypotheses floating around. The existence of a scar on his chest, revealed during his brief capture by a rival gang, Y shaped and unevenly healed proved to many that he must be a revenant risen from the dead, filling the graves of the guilty so that his might stay empty.

Silence and darkness are home for the Black Bat. She is a ghost in the night, flitting in and out of shadows, her footsteps light on decrepit rooftops. Her presence is a silent comfort to the innocent and a quiet threat to others. Part of her particular brand of creepy is that she always seems to know who is lying to her. She is impossible to fool and when she gives chase, she always catches her prey, she never falls for tricks or lies.

Red Robin is the perfect mimic. Flawless repetition of words said and regretted, replicated from a photographic copy. Exact imitations of movements at a moment's notice. He gives a birdlike tilt of his head and shows people their own actions from a different body. Nothing is more unnerving than seeing your smile, your mannerisms on a stranger’s face.Watching him fight is like watching ten people fight from within the same body, switching control back and forth between them. He combines the grace of an acrobat, the speed of a boxer, the brutality of a street fighter. Tricks only work on him once and he remembers every betrayal and slight in perfect detail.

There is something very definitely incongruous about the way Batgirl smiles when she fights. Mostly, her smile is soft and carefree. A genuine smile that reaches all the way up to her eyes, no cruelty in it at all. It bothers people to see such a pleasant expression cemented on her face when fists connect with flesh. Sometimes her smile is vicious, predatory, cruel. When she fights the worst of the criminals, she bares her teeth and the resulting grin is almost inhuman. Most of the time though, her lips are upturned in little smiles. Her softer smiles don’t match the blood on her clothing.

Robin is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Bright colors scream poison, but his small size throws many people off. He is dangerous and the worst part of it is that he is clearly still only a child. He walks and fights with the self assured confidence of a professional twice his age. The dissonance between his body and his attitude would be almost comical if he didn’t have the skill to make good on his threats, as it stands, the combination is disconcerting enough to be dangerous. The fools who underestimate him are now wary of the fact that he’s only a child.


End file.
